Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has ‘No Powerpoint’ rule at Amazon Meetings. Here’s why!
Don’t we all just dread power point presentations? Be it in school, college or at work, nobody likes to make a power point presentation, more so sit through it. Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon, has banned the most dreaded custom of making power point presentations from his office. At the George W. Bush Presidential Center’s Forum on Leadership, Bezos admitted that he has a "No PowerPoint" rule in this year's annual letter to shareholders.
Instead of making power point with bullets, Amazon employees put together "narratively structured six-page memos," read them while sitting in silence for 30 minutes and then discuss the ideas being presented in great detail. Revealing the reason behind the same, Bezos said that many high school students bluff their way through a power point, to ensure that this doesn’t happen in his office, he makes sure that everyone is on the same page, literally.
The Founder admitted that the memos have a variety of points. "Some have the clarity of angels singing. They are brilliant and thoughtful and set up the meeting for high-quality discussion. Sometimes they come in at the other end of the spectrum."
But he is very sure that the narrative structure is far better than the power points. He even joked that when the new executives come, they get a cultural shock while attending their first meetings. Hear the full discussion here-
When this piece of information hit Twitter, one user wondered, "The world's wealthiest person and CEO of Amazon banned PowerPoints from meetings cause they are ineffective. He replaced them with... get this, silent reading. Why do we still do PowerPoints?"
Well, not a bad question. Next time you are told to make one, just say that Amazon founder had advised against it
